Sordid deals and deadly games in pursuit of pleasure

The Federation-style mansion is a far cry from the side of a Newcastle road where truck driver Glenn Punch, 44, injected a fatal dose of so-called ''bath salts'' two months ago or an adult shop in Mackay where a man binged on 10 packets of the same substance, resulting in his leg being amputated.

But it was here in Pymble that the businesses selling Smokin Slurrie, the legal synthetic cocaine product that caused both men to go on naked and psychotic rampages, were supposedly based, according to company records lodged with ASIC.

The man responsible for the spread of Smokin Slurrie around the country is Mark Binsted, a former Barker College student.

At the time of Mr Punch's death, the 27-year-old had registered one company, Hektic Herbal, to a Pymble apartment and another, East Coast Tobacconist Distributors, to his parents' nearby mansion, where his father, Paul,an investment banker and former chairman of the Sydney Ports Corporation and State Rail Authority, has hosted lavish $10,000-a-head Australian Labor Party fund-raisers.

Leading Labor figures Bob Carr and Mark Latham have been welcomed through the Queen Anne-style home's grand double doors.

Now, police sources confirm Mark Binsted is being investigated as they crack down on the spread of the mysterious drug.

Since Fairfax reported on Mr Punch's death, the Smokin Slurrie website has disappeared and the registered offices of Mr Binsted's two companies have been changed to the North Sydney office of Northside Law. ASIC records still list the principal place of business as the Binstead family home.

Herald investigations have found that Mr Binsted engaged a 43-year-old Queensland father, Brett Reddell, and his 34-year-old partner to distribute Smokin Slurrie to adult shops and tobacconists around the country, including the Nauti n Nice adult shop where Mr Punch and his girlfriend, Rachael Hickel, bought the deadly drug for $150.

Tests by Queensland police revealed it contained an illegal compound called Alpha-PVP and shops selling the product were raided two weeks ago.

Mr Reddell and his partner were charged with drug trafficking and will appear in a Queensland court in January. Police in NSW are taking a more cautious approach as their tests have not yet confirmed it has illegal compounds.

Mr Binsted has kept himself at arm's length from the drama in Queensland.

Mr Reddell kept stock at a Queensland house and was the contact point for sellers. Northside Law's Pauline Wong wrote letters on behalf of Mr Binsted's companies that assured sellers of Smokin Slurrie's legality.

One seller on the central coast, who stocks the product at his shop in Westfield, said wholesalers such as Mr Binsted could earn up to $3000 per kilogram of drugs sold. ''The profits are huge,'' he said.

Paul Binsted said he was unaware his son, who no longer lives at home, had registered the addresses of the synthetic drug companies as being the family home and said he was surprised and disappointed. Fairfax Media does not suggest that the business was in fact run from the home, or that Paul Binsted had any involvement in it.

A former friend said Mark was the black sheep of the family and had a chequered past, including threatening violence against friends. He was convicted of an armed break and enter in 2006 and was found not guilty on three assault charges in 2009.

He will front Manly Local Court this month on drink driving charges.

Mr Binsted did not return calls and Mr Reddell refused to answer questions.

Neither of the men has commented on the death of Mr Punch, who went into cardiac arrest while trying to get help for his injured, drug-affected girlfriend, or on the Mackay adult shop worker who went into a violent rage, trashing his workplace in October. Police found him with 10 opened packets of Smokin Slurrie. He had broken his leg and it had was so infected it had to be amputated.

''We are starting to see how dangerous [the drugs] really can be,'' said Detective Superintendent Nick Bingham, the head of the NSW Drug Squad.